Triangular Awkwardness
by SiriuslySexy
Summary: It's 6th year for the marauders. There's pranks to pull, Wales to visit, and the quest to help James win Lily's heart. Sirius and Remus are having issues with their friendship and their feelings and a feisty girl makes it more complicated. *warning-slash*


**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters apart from any original ones I put into the story. They all belong to J.K.R  
I very much wish I owned Sirius, but that's for entirely different reasons ;)  
**

Chapter 1- I Think I Would Have Preferred A Prince

The common room was noisy. Too noisy for Remus. He really should have started reading his potion notes yesterday but there had been quite a few distractions so now he only had 4 days left to memorise various ingredients and methods before he had to endure an hour of potion making with Professor Slughorn. He usually enjoyed reading, but potions was the one thing he couldn't stand and, as his eyes slid over the words _'simmer for two minutes'_ for the third time, he let himself look up from his textbook and gaze absentmindedly into the fire in front of him. His thoughts started to wonder to the previous day and the things that had distracted him from his revision.

"_Come on Moony! Stop being so boring and put your textbook down, it's only potions anyway"_

"_James you know full well that I'm hopeless at potions and that if I don't revise I will probably make the dungeons and Professor Slughorn explode"_

"_From your bad potion or the angry vein in Slughorn's head popping"_ Peter chimed in.

"_Well I've always thought that thing had a life of its own"_

Peter laughed appreciatively, like he did at all of James' jokes that weren't aimed at him; actually even then he would try to laugh with the others. Peter laughing had encouraged James to start doing impressions of an angry Slughorn while his small friend held his sides and rolled around with laughter saying _"R-r-remus, Remus make h-him st-t-top"_

Remus however wasn't paying any attention to either of them but had been surveying Sirius who was about a meter away from them, lying on his stomach. He had propped himself up on his elbows and was smoking a cigarette while lazily watching the giant squid glide its tentacles through the water, occasionally breaking the surface.

Remus eventually shut his book and half crawled over to where Sirius was lying just as Peter requested a Professor McGonagall impression, which James was more than happy to give.

"_Alright Remus" _Sirius said without taking his eyes off the newly formed ripples in the lake.

Remus mirrored his position and was careful to lay his book down on a grassy tuff so there was much less chance of it getting muddy.

"_Yea I'm good. I was just wondering why your sitting here looking very serious Sirius" _Remus glanced to his right just in time to see his friend give a slight laugh which came out as more of a breath, along with a large amount of smoke. _"You know McGonagall will kill you if she sees you right now. I suspect she will think it's an easier option than having to think up a new punishment to try and put you off smoking again."_

"_I'm alright for now. She's in her office at the moment I checked."_ Remus saw that Sirius had the Marauder's Map; the map they had all made together, only a matter of months ago, in between his elbows and slightly crumpled under his chest._ "I also made sure that last time I was in there, to look out the window and this section right here by the lake is covered by our Moony tree."_

Sirius, for the first time since his friend had lay next to him, looked up at Remus' face to see his reaction. He wondered what he thought about the new nickname for the large willow tree that all four of the Marauder's ventured into once a month.

When Remus remained silent with only a hint of a smile on his face Sirius felt he wanted more of a response.

"_So? What do you think?"_

Remus took a few moments to lean forwards and tug gently at the map to free it from Sirius' chest.

"_Yes it's very affectionate and all that but I'd rather you wouldn't call it that if you don't mind"_ He stopped neatly folding the map and looked across to his right.

Now the boys were both looking at each other at the same time, for the first time, for what had seemed like ages. Sirius with a look of disbelief etched on his features and Remus with raised eyebrows and a 'don't pretend you don't know why' look on his face.

"_Now Moony -"_

"_Padfoot I know what you're trying -" _

"_Hey! I know what you think I'm trying to do and I know exactly why you don't like it. And for your information I wasn't actually trying to do what you think I was. It was just a thing. You know a thought, a random thought that I decided to say out loud. I know you don't do that Moony but you can at least understand that I do; all the time. Now unless you start to realise that you being furry once a month isn't a big deal at all to the rest of us, your never going to learn to look forward to the full moon. Which was, to be fair, almost the whole entire reason why we decided to become thoroughly illegal for you."_

Remus felt like pointing out that he had never actually asked his friends to become animagi, especially illegal ones, but felt that it wasn't the right thing to say. For some reason he also felt like pointing out that Sirius' lips were glistening. He decided that this was just one of those strange and random thoughts that Sirius was always talking about, and of which he didn't really understand. He decided to say neither of these things and came out with his third option:

"_**Almost**__, the entire reason?" _accompanied with a smile._ "What else could have possibly attracted you to becoming so decidedly illegal, than the thought of helping out you rather wolfish friend?"_

Remus had learned early on how to pretend that he managed to get over things quickly, but in reality he was cringing at the thought of so carelessly referring to his lycanthropy like that.

It seemed that the talk of full moons or, more likely, illegal things had attracted James' attention and he sat himself in front of them as Peter followed suit.

"_Why but of course Moony, that is the reason. It's just so incredibly illegal that it would be wrong for a Marauder's brain not to incorporate that into the reasoning for something."_

"_I agree with Prongs"_

"_You always do Pete mate" _Sirius carelessly flicked his finished fag from between his fingers. It rolled down the slope leading towards the lake. It very nearly went in.

At Sirius' words Peter had adopted a quizzical expression, as if trying to figure out if he did always agree with James.

"_Actually"_ said Sirius putting his hands flat on the ground in front of him and bringing his knees forward so that he was on all fours grinning stupidly, and looking rather canine, just for a second, only a second. Remus wondered why it was that his eyes were noticing these things about Sirius today. He decided that he had been looking at Sirius for too long. Yes that was it so he shifted his gaze to the left a bit and landed on Prongs' face instead. His brain had probably been trying to overwork itself and find something noticeable about the object that had been directly in his field of vision for the past five minutes. Not that there wasn't obviously noticeable things about Sirius already, but personally Remus had always appreciated the not so obvious things about people far more than the blatant ones. Sirius was kneeling up now and Remus noticed he was talking and from the look on James' face it was probably the type of talk Remus should be listening to.

"…_so once we've got at least ten of them all we have to do is a few simple engorgement charms and hit them with the lust potion, and hey presto we've got prank 'I think I would have preferred a Prince'__** and**__ enough distraction to send Peter down to the kitchens with the usual order, all in time for the celebratory 'Slytherin's are knobs party"_ Sirius finished with a slight nod of his head and a smirk at the awed expression on James' face.

"_Pads, mate this is __**gold! **__We haven't had a brainwave like this in weeks. Last time we had something this good is was prank 'How can someone so slimy be so wrinkly' and that was only inspired by your old old grandma Melania telling her she would make sure as a dying wish that you were written out of her will as well"_

"_Yea she always was kind of behind the times. Still I guess the fact that she moved to Norway 'cos there are 'more purebloods there' left her a little slow on the family communications"_

"_So how were you inspired to come up with this prank that I was only half listening to but got the gist of nonetheless? I'm also about to switch off my prefect-y part of my brain before I tell you that we are all going to get in a lot of trouble for this; and let my, as you call it 'normal', half take over and ask again, how did you come up with the idea and when are we doing it?"_

The mischievous Remus never failed to surprise Sirius, which seemed silly since he had seen this side of his friend for the past six years. He couldn't help but smile as he examined Moony's excited expression, lit up face, and wide smile accompanied with bright eyes.

"_Well Moonykins I was just sitting here thinking about kissing, because I do love it you know; kissing, and at the same time I was watching the giant squid and the slime and the kissing kind of got mushed together in my brain and I came up with this. We'll do it at dinner. No need to eat before, we'll have something at the party. So, do you like it?"_

"_Yea I think so. Although I'm not really sure what __**it**__ is at the moment so you'll have to fill me in on our way back to the castle"_

"_My pleasure"_ Sirius reckoned that his face should be arranged into his concentrating and bossy Sirius face as he looked around at his friends waiting for their attention. He didn't have to wait long._ "Now, Peter," _The chubby boys face hardened with attention at being addressed by Sirius _"you and James are going to walk around to the left side of the lake to the really marshy part and find no less than ten frogs."_

The plan seemed to slot into place in Remus' head. It was so simple yet quite brilliant.

"_Remus you're coming with me back up to the castle. You're going to whine to Slughorn about how you're oh so nervous about the test, giving me enough time to sneak past in James' cloak and steal enough supplies."_

"_Supplies?"_ This part of the plan had failed to slot into place.

"_Yes Moooony!" _He leant forward and tapped Remus' head with his right forefinger continuing to do so as he carried on with his explanation. _"Get with it. YOU are distracting, I am ingredient stealing, and WE are potion making."_

The dull clunking of his head underneath Sirius' finger was quite distracting.

"_What do you mean, WE are potion making? Take James, I'm crap."_

Sirius stopped tapping.

"_Hey! I won't have any marauder calling himself crap. Besides making a few potions now might get you in the right frame of mind for Friday" _Remus merely shrugged. _"Any-who…ah yes I remember. James once you have acquired the frogs come meet me and Remus in the 4__th__ floor boys toilets, you know the ones that have an' out of order' sign for all those who don't have Moony, Pads, Prongs, or Wormy eyes."_

"_How could I forget Sirius? You still haven't shut up about it even though it's been about a year since you charmed the bogs"_ James said in a dull voice, rolling his eyes at the end.

"_Enough Prongsie. Sheesh if you all keep interrupting we'll never get finished dishing out the orders"_

"_I haven't interrupted yet" _Peter said with a smug look on his face, which vanished almost immediately when James said _"Wormtail you big prat you've just interrupted by telling us you haven't interrupted"_

"_Oh shut up James"_

"_Both of you shut up"_

James was eyeing Peter with a strange look about him and blinking a little too much.

"_So once again, Jay-Jay is meeting me and Remu," _all four of them sniggered at Sirius' use of their childish nicknames. It was Sirius who had initially thought them up the first time they had all got drunk in second year. Well those three were drunk, Remus was tipsy; he didn't like to let it get past this point. These names were very rarely used when they weren't drunk. They had been kind of reserved for drunkenness. He was trying very hard to remember what Peter's was.

Sirius looked torn between amusement and being annoyed at himself for interrupting when he had just told everyone else not to. Not that Sirius usually followed the rules he or anyone else set.

"_Right now that all the sillyness is over, we are meeting in the toilets in about an hour an a half. Everyone but Pete that is. You're to the kitchens. If, while you are frog searching you find any other disgusting creature that may fit in with the plan, bring it along. Right now lets get going" _Remus rather thought that sometimes Sirius liked to think that he was executing pranks in a military like fashion and took on a bossy role accordingly.

Next thing he knew he was being dragged to his feet by Sirius' firm grip on his upper arm. Remus' fingertips were barely able to grab the map before he had left the floor completely. Sirius hadn't waited after Remus had stood up and was already walking briskly towards the castle with purpose.

"_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Hey Sirius, wait up will ya."_Remus half jogged to catch up with Sirius. He turned back to see James and Peter walking the opposite way to begin their frog search. They were deep in conversation, at least, James was talking rather fast and Peter was listening with a small frown on his face. Remus shook his head and looked down at the map as he increased his pace trying to keep up with Sirius.

"_It looks like old Filch-y is in Dumbledore's office. Probably complaining about that hair-loss hex you put on Mrs. Norris and trying to get you kicked out; even though he has no hard evidence that you did it."_

"_Apart from the insane laughter and floor rolling"_

"_Yes that didn't exactly help" _Remus replied the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile. Sirius noticed. He grinned broadly. Moony's mouth always made him smile in a strange way. It was all wiggly and firm and crooked and plump, all at the same time. Plump? Did he just say the word plump about Moony's mouth?

They trudged on in silence and reached the steps up to Hogwarts. Once inside they saw, emerging from the stairs leading to the dungeons, a lowered head with greasy, lank black hair and an abnormally large nose stuck in the Defence against Dark Arts textbook that was the cause of distraction to this boy.

Sirius quietly hissed and made a small growling noise in the back of his throat. Moony's hand was on his shoulder in a flash.

"_Pads don't. There's no need to draw attention to yourself right now. Remember; the prank?" _Sirius venomous face softened a little.

"_Ha yea I'd forgotten we're gonna get him later"_

"_Hmm I should have known. Who else was this idea going to be directed towards?"_

"_Well we're not __**just **__getting him. Other Slytherin's as well. But we couldn't leave him out old SNIVELLUS!" _Sirius' made up nickname for Snape was shouted and rang out, the sound bouncing of the walls. Quite a few people had stopped to stare knowing that Sirius taunting Snape was always amusing. Snape had lowered his textbook and was now holding it with one hand. His right hand was down by his side. He had whipped his wand out so quick upon hearing his nickname that Remus hadn't even noticed it happening. His face was hard and his stance was prepared. Remus looked up at Sirius and almost gasped. He hated Sirius when he looked like this. It was fucking scary.

"_Enough mate. Come on we've gotta get going" _Sirius looked unwilling to move but allowed Remus to steer him away. Unfortunately they had to go down the stairs that Severus was standing at the top of and he thought that they were coming towards him. He raised his wand. This was the most very wrong thing to do. Almost without warning Sirius had launched himself forward taking everyone including Snape by surprise. Sirius tended to favour a physical fight to a magical one when he got past a certain point of anger. Remus was silently cursing that Sirius had managed to reach this point of anger in little to no time.

Sirius' words were in time with his fists.

"_Don't. Ever. Pull. Your. Wand. On. Me. Again!"_

With a strength that would surprise Sirius, if he hadn't have been in a fair few fights with Remus over the years, and knew he had certain useful werewolf attributes that had transferred to the teenage boy that was now lifting Sirius off the ground from under his armpits, strong arms wrapped around his chest. He kicked Snape's legs as a closing statement. The next thing he knew he was descending the stairs; feet not quite touching the floor even though Remus was shorter than he was. The laughter from upstairs ringing in his ears still.

Pe-Pe, Remus thought. Jay-Jay, Siru, Pe-Pe, and Remu.


End file.
